Custom-printed packaging should be designed with customer experience in mind. Aside from serving the practical purpose of protecting and concealing products, packaging also establishes your brand identity and distinguishes your products from similar ones that are on the market. The wrong packaging can have a detrimental impact on customer experience, which in turn can translate to decreased sales. The point of packaging is to attract customers to your product and entice them enough to consider purchasing it. Off-putting branding and packaging can hurt your chances of making a sale and attracting your target audience.
Keep reading to learn about the most common custom packaging mistakes and how to avoid them.
Hard to Open Packaging That Frustrates Customers
Imagine purchasing a product that you’ve been saving up for or eagerly waiting to launch for a long time. Then you’re finally able to get your hands on it and you’re extremely excited to open it only to struggle with the external plastic cover and the complex hard cardboard packaging. Packaging that’s too complicated and difficult to open can really put a damper on the whole unboxing experience.
Unboxing is a really big phenomenon right now where people film themselves opening up a package for a highly anticipated product or gift and then post their reactions on their social media channels. It’s especially common with social media influencers that have a lot of followers viewing their videos. A negative unboxing experience can leave a bad taste in people’s mouths and wane their interest in your actual product, regardless of how impressive it is.
Typos, Misprints, and Confusing Designs
Product packaging is a reflection of your brand identity. It contains important product information such as instructions on how to use the product, how not to use the product, warning labels, product features, ingredients, and nutritional value (for food and beverages), etc.
Noticeable typos, misprints, and confusing packaging designs that don’t fit in with your brand identity or the nature of the product can deflect from your brand messaging. Before approving packaging designs, make sure to run through every last detail with a fine-toothed comb to ensure there are no errors. Choose images that relate to your product and brand and fonts that are easy to read from a distance.
Labelling Mistakes Completely Mismatching the Product
Package labelling should be chosen with absolute precision. Make sure the phrasing on your product packaging is perfectly clear, easy to understand, and geared toward the reading level of your target audience. This is especially important if you’re including multiple languages on your product label. The translations in each language should be grammatically correct and make sense to avoid alienating or insulting international customers.
Using Designs That Misrepresent the Product
Some companies may intentionally misrepresent the capabilities and features of their products on the packaging just to make a quick sale. Outright tricking or lying to customers, however, can have serious repercussions. First of all, it’s illegal and you can get sued for deliberately misrepresenting your product on the packaging as this can have negative consequences for your customers who may need your product for specific reasons. An example of this is making grandiose medical claims about the healing power of your product without having any real scientific merit to back it up.
Second, you have to earn the trust of your customers. Failing to do so or outright lying to them will discourage them from buying products from you again in the future. Moreover, customers will leave negative reviews on your social media pages, product purchasing websites, and search engines. Other prospective customers will see these negative reviews and may also be deterred from supporting your business.
Using Packaging Materials That Aren’t Eco-Friendly
Modern customers are very eco-conscious. As a result, many of them get frustrated when they see companies they want to support but can’t do so in good conscience because they continue to use an unnecessary amount of packaging materials that are dangerous to the environment. This is especially frustrating since there are numerous eco-friendly packaging alternatives that are just as aesthetically pleasing and durable.
The point of packaging is to safeguard the products inside, provide customers with important product information, and attract customers to the product. All of these objectives can be met just as effectively—and in some cases, even more so—with eco-friendly packaging. It’s time to nix all of that unnecessary plastic that’s only going to end up in a landfill or the oceans and consider using recycled or upcycled materials instead.
Material Wastage in Custom Packaging
By that same token, far too many companies are still using a lot more packaging materials for their products than what’s necessary. Given the ongoing pandemic, a lot of people are ordering the majority of their purchase items online. So it’s understandable that some companies are using a little extra packaging to prevent products from getting damaged during the transport and delivery process. However, as mentioned, there are a lot of great alternatives to plastic wrap and other materials that are harmful to the environment. The onus is on brands to do their due diligence and find ways of sourcing these materials. Customers get frustrated when they see an unnecessary amount of plastic on products that simply don’t need it.
A glaring example of this is fruit and vegetables that have their own natural protective skin but are sold in plastic bags and containers anyway (e.g., bananas, apples, avocados, etc.).
Dull Designs, Low-Quality Packaging, and Ineffective Branding
If you want your brand and product to stand out from others that are like it, then you need to put a lot of thought and careful planning into the package design. Custom packaging is an essential aspect of effective branding. Make sure the design and the quality of the packaging appropriately reflects the branding and type of product that you’re selling. Otherwise, customers will be grossly disappointed if what they see isn’t exactly what they get.
Custom-Printed Packaging Solutions at Magenta Depot
At Magenta Depot, we provide excellent, high-quality, Canadian-made custom-printed packaging solutions that can help you meet your sales and marketing objectives. If you’re looking for custom packaging designs in the GTA, our website features a wide range of predetermined templates that you can use as the foundation for your creative vision.
We offer custom packaging throughout Canada with a 24/7 convenient online ordering platform that gives you significant cost savings and a reliable two-week turnaround time. Contact us today to learn more about our services or to place your order.
